hagel, meanwhile, already working out of the pentagon for weeks preparing for the transition and first battle will be a budget war. the dod is faced with cuts even in the next seven months alone of $43 billion. cuts to training, grounded planes, docked warships. all things the president referred to today at a shipyard. >> main reason i'm here is to call attention to the important work you're doing on behalf of the nation's defense and to let the american people know that this work along with hundreds of thousands of jobs are currently in jeopardy because of politics in washington. these cuts are wrong. they're not smart. they're not fair. >> michael hersh is chief correspondent at "the national journal." so let's start there. there's this notion that if he's confirmed and i think we all expect that he will be that he'll enter defense in some kind of a weakened position after not so great confirmation hearing and then this really okay ro moan you battle over the confirmation. what kind of tangible consequences will that have? how will the job as defense secretary be more difficult becau